Latin Archdiocese of Smyrna

LATIN ARCHDIOCESE OF SMYRNA
(SMYRNENSIS), in Asia Minor.

The city of Smyrna rises like an
amphitheatre on the gulf which bears its name. It is the capital
of the vilayet of Aïdin and the starting-point of several
railways; it has a population of at least 300,000, of whom 150,000
are Greeks. There are also numerous Jews and Armenians and almost
10,000 European Catholics. It was founded more than 1000 years
B.C. by colonists from Lesbos who had expelled the Leleges, at a
place now called Bournabat, about an hour's distance from the
present Smyrna. Shortly before 688 B.C. it was captured by the
Ionians, under whose rule it became a very rich and powerful city
(Herodotus, I, 150). About 580 B.C. it was destroyed by Alyattes,
King of Lydia. Nearly 300 years afterwards Antigonus (323-301
B.C.), and then Lysimachus, undertook to rebuild it on its present
site. Subsequently comprised in the Kingdom of Pergamus, it was
ceded in 133 B.C. to the Romans. These built there a judiciary
conventus and a mint. Smyrna had a celebrated school of
rhetoric, was one of the cities which had the title of metropolis,
and in which the concilium festivum of Asia was celebrated.
Demolished by an earthquake in A.D. 178 and 180, it was rebuilt by
Marcus Aurelius. In 673 it was captured by a fleet of Arab
Mussulmans. Under the inspiration of Clement VI the Latins
captured it from the Mussulmans in 1344 and held it until 1402,
when Tamerlane destroyed it after slaying the inhabitants. In 1424
the Turks captured it and, save for a brief occupation by the
Venetians in 1472, it has since belonged to them.

Christianity was preached to the
inhabitants at an early date. As early as the year 93, there
existed a Christian community directed by a bishop for whom St.
John in the Apocalypse (i, II; ii, 8-11) has only words of praise.
There are extant two letters written early in the second century
from Troas by St. Ignatius of Antioch to those of Smyrna and to
Polycarp, their bishop. Through these letters and those of the
Christians of Smyrna to the city of Philomelium, we know of two
ladies of high rank who belonged to the Church of Smyrna. There
were other Christians in the vicinity of the city and dependent on
it to whom St. Polycarp wrote letters (Eusebius, "Hist.
Eccl.", V, xxiv). When Polycarp was martyred (23 February),
the Church of Smyrna sent an encyclical concerning his death to
the Church of Philomelium and others. The "Vita Polycarpi"
attributed to St. Pionius, a priest of Smyrna martyred in 250,
contains a list of the first bishops: Strataes; Bucolus; Polycarp;
Papirius; Camerius; Eudaemon (250), who apostatized during the
persecution of Decius; Thraseas of Eumenia, martyr, who was buried
at Smyrna. Noctos, a Modalist heretic of the second century, was a
native of the city as were also Sts. Pothinus and Irenaeus of
Lyons. Mention should also be made of another martyr, St.
Dioscorides, venerated on 21 May. Among the Greek bishops, a list
of whom appears in Le Quien, (Oriens Christ., I, 737-46), was
Metrophanes, the great opponent of Photius, who laboured in the
revision of the "Octoekos", a Greek liturgical book.

The Latin See of Smyrna was created
by Clement VI in 1346 and had an uninterrupted succession of
titulars until the seventeenth century. This was the beginning of
the Vicariate Apostolic of Asia Minor, or of Smyrna, of vast
extent. In 1818 Pius VII established the Archdiocese of Smyrna, at
the same time retaining the vicariate Apostolic, the jurisdiction
of which was wider. Its limits were those of the vicariates
Apostolic of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Constantinople. The
archdiocese had 17,000 Latin Catholics, some Greek Melchites,
called Alepi, and Armenians under special organization. There are:
19 secular priests; 55 regulars; 8 parishes, of which 4 are in
Smyrna; 14 churches with resident priests and 12 without priests;
25 primary schools with 2500 pupils, 8 colleges or academies with
800 pupils; 2 hospitals; and 4 orphanages. The religious men in
the archdiocese or the vicariate Apostolic are Franciscans,
Capuchins, Lazarists, Dominicans, Salesians of Don Bosco,
Assumptionists (at Koniah), Brothers of the Christian Schools, and
Marist Brothers (at Metellin). Religious communities of women are
the Carmelites, Sisters of Charity (13 houses with more than 100
sisters), Sisters of Sion, Dominicans of Ivrée, Sisters of
St. Joseph, and Oblates of the Assumption.